The United States said on Monday it would no longer fund scientific research with Israeli academic institutions in the West Bank, distancing itself from Israel’s policies in the occupied territory, AFP reported.

The decision by the Democratic administration of Joe Biden reverses measures taken under his predecessor, Donald Trump, who rejected the international consensus that Israel illegally occupied the West Bank after the 1967 Six-Day War.

New guidance to US government agencies states that “engaging in bilateral technological and scientific cooperation with Israel in geographic areas that came under Israeli administration after 1967 and are still subject to final status negotiations is inconsistent with US foreign policy.” Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

It stressed that Washington “places great importance on technological and scientific cooperation with Israel,” saying that funding restrictions in the West Bank reflected “a long-standing US position that goes back decades.”

The decision will particularly concern Ariel University, a large educational institution founded in 1982 in the then-new West Bank colony.

Members of the Republican Party were quick to criticize the statement. Senator Ted Cruz accused the Biden administration of “anti-Semitic discrimination” against Jews in the West Bank.

And David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, accused the government of joining the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement. The administration says it opposes the move, which calls for an economic, cultural or scientific boycott of Israel to end the occupation and colonization of Palestinian territories.